If Emmaus High School is going to capture its fifth straight Lehigh Valley Conference boys lacrosse title, it will have to come at the expense of Parkland.
Emmaus easily dispatched Nazareth, 12-4, in the first semifinal and Parkland held on for an 8-6 victory over Easton in the second semifinal today at Andrew Leh Stadium.
Emmaus (14-5) had nine days off before its semifinal. During that time, Emmaus coach Scott Ketcham had his varsity team scrimmage against the junior varsity team. That scrimmage turned out an unexpected result with the junior varsity team winning.
But Ketcham said that loss by his varsity was actually a good outcome. The scrimmage showed a lack of attention to detail that hurt the Hornets in their 9-8 overtime loss to Nazareth earlier this season.
"Our JV is very disciplined," Ketcham said. "They move the ball and they make you make mistakes. We weren't ourselves and we didn't do those things."
Emmaus showed a renewed sense of focus after Nazareth (14-5) took a 3-2 lead into the second quarter before the Hornets scored five straight goals.
"We have that five-year streak at Emmaus of winning the LVCs so we couldn't let that end," Emmaus attack Nick Tonno. "So we're happy that we're going to the championship."
Emmaus goalie Garrett Miers made 11 saves. Two of his biggest saves came in a five-second stretch early in the fourth quarter with Emmaus up 9-4. In that stretch, he twice stopped Nazareth's Grant Searfoss, who had clear shots at the net.
"The most dangerous thing to have in lacrosse is a smart goaltender," Ketcham said. "Most goaltenders are crazy, but (Miers) is smart. He knows how to run the defense, make the save and then get the ball out."
Emmaus captured its title last year with a 13-4 victory over Nazareth. This time, it got four goals and an assist from Tonno and Drew Phillipes added three goals and three assists for the Hornets.
The Hornets were best in transition. Three times they turned a save from Miers quickly into a goal of their own.
"We love to push transition; that's really our game," Tonno said. "I feel like we're better at transition than any other team in the Valley."
The only team that can now prevent Emmaus from continuing its dominance of the LVC is Parkland, which survived a scrappy meeting with Easton.
Easton (13-4) was called for 10 penalties with half of them coming in the third quarter. In that frame, the Trojans built a three-goal cushion, which was enough to hold on when the Rovers rallied late.
Parkland (14-5) had its 7-4 lead from the start of the fourth quarter cut to one after Easton's AlSharif Blackman scored with 8:06 left. Easton appeared to have all the momentum before Josh Pope put an end to that with a goal with 5:32 left.
"I knew our team needed a spark to get us going so I put it in my hands and luckily it went in," Pope said.
Pope scored twice for the Trojans and was joined by teammates Anthony Ganguzza and Brett Kudlak with multiple goals.
Despite Easton being called for 10 penalties, the Trojans scored just twice in those situations. What was important, said Parkland coach Brad Schifko, is that his team did not retaliate.
"Every time we had a stoppage of play, that's the one thing we would talk about," Schifko said. "Easton's certainly not going to lie down and hand it to us and they would come out aggressive and turn up the intensity. We needed to make sure we kept the cool head."
Emmaus has defeated Parkland twice this season, but Pope said those meetings have given the Trojans an idea of what to expect come Monday. Schifko said his team nearly beat the Hornets the last time they played.
"We kind of fell apart a little bit in the end," Schifko said. "We had a two-goal lead with two minutes left in the ballgame and we did some things that were uncharacteristic of us and they capitalized."